
V: 



Book_P_ll__ 



THE CRISIS, AND WHAT IT DEMANDS 



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X 



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OF Missoum, 

Delivered in the Senate of the United States, January 14, 1861. 



January 14, 1861. — The Senate resumed the consideration of the following reso- 
lution, subtnilled by Mr. Hunter on the 2d instant: 

Whereas, certain forts, magazines, arsenals, dock-yards, and other needful buildings, liave been placed 
under the exclusive jurisdRtioi\ of the United t'tates by a cession to thiU etiect from certain States, and it may 
be the desire of one or tnore of those Ptates toresnnie the jnrisdictiou jhns ceded : Now, therefore, 

Se it resoh-cd. That the l^rcsident of the Unitud rotates ought to be autliorized by law. upon the application 
of the lycgisifcture, or of a regular convention of the people of any such States, to retrocede this jurLsdiclion 
to such States, ujion tykmg proper security for the safe keeping and return of all the property of the United 
States, or for pa> in>^ loi' the value of ihe. same if dcsiroyed or injured liy the act of any of the States making 
such application. 

The pending question was on the amendment of Mr. Trumbull, v/hich was to 
strike out the preamble, and all the resolution after the word "that," and, in lieu of 
itj to insert : 

We fully opprove ai the bold and pairiolie act of Major Anderson, in witlidrawing from Fort Moultrie to 
Fort Sumter, and of the (letermiiiatioii of ihe President lo maintain that fearless officer in his present position; 
and that we will support the President in all constitutional measures to enforce the laws and preserve the 
Union. 

Mr. POLK addressed the Senate as follows: 

Mr. President : In the momentous crisis precipitated upon the country, I have 
felt constrained hitherto to refrain from participating in the debate occasioned by 
it. I have feared that if I should speak, I might say something which might be 
productive of harm; that, under the pressure of excitement or of interest lor my 
State and constituents, I might not heed as implicitly as I ought, the dictates of mo- 
deration and patriotism. 

But, repre.senting, in part, on this floor, a State whose welfare I know is most 
deeply involved — a border slaveholding State, and though one of the youngest, yet 
one of the most populous of the southern States; indeed, the first of all of them in 
white population — I feel that duty allows me to remain silent no longer. 

Mr. P'resident, the Roman hi>,torian, Tacitus, in di scribing the condition of the 
eternal city when about to receive the shock of one of those startling revolutions 
which transferred the imperial purple from one Emperor to another, used this lan- 
guage; '■^Ni/u tumidius^ non quies, sell quale mafftiae irae, magni meius, sUentimn fuit.^^ 
There was not tumult, there was not quiet ; but the silence of great wrath and great 
fear. This, I apprehend, is the condition of the southern half of our Confederacy at 
this hour. The noise and excitement of the late presidential canva.ss are past. The 
contest is decided. Sectionalism and anti-slavery fanaticism have triumphed ; their 
candidates are elected: and now there is the calm, tiie silence of men settled in their 
purpose to accept the stern alternative forced upon tiiem by the result. Now look, 
m the other direction, at the North. What is the state of the case there? At first, 
astonishment : then, among the honest and patriotic masses, regret, profound and 
wide spread. 

The two sections are brouglit by the result face to face, not in fraternal greeting, 
but in unnatural antagonism, sei)arated by a geographical line. 



What is ihe condition of things all over the entire Confederacy, both North and 
South'? Universal panic, prostration of credit, public and private. Why, Mr. 
President, our Government has just advertised for a loan of ^5,000,000, and she 
could only get half of it bid for : nor even that except at usurious rates of interest, 
running up to the extreme of thirty-six per centum per annum. Failures and bank- 
ruptcies, stagnation and embarrassment everywhere and among all classes. Busi- 
ness languishing ; trade crippled; commerce curtailed; industry paralyzed ; artisans 
and mechanics idle for the want of employment ; factories stopped and operatives dis- 
charged ; sutlering among the laboring poor ; and families without necessaries eren 
now, and want and perhaps starvation, just before them in the future; and this glo- 
rious fabric of our Union even now tottering to its fall. Four of the pillars that 
sustained the lowering edifice arc already removed ; and among them, one of the 
original thirteen upon which it first reposed. Six others are on the point of being 
removed ; soon to be followed, it may be, by half of the residue, incluiing among 
the slaveholding States, the first and the last to come into the Union. 

Mr. President, the circumstances which surround us are enough to force us to 
pause and to ponder. And if we do so, we shall perceive the cold shadow of events 
still more startling corning upon us in the future. Even now a vision of civil war 
begins to rise up before us ; but we are not yet able to discern the form thereof. 

Sir, I feel, for one. that we are in the tnidst of a crisis unprecedented in our his- 
tory. It may be the very crisis of our country's fate. 

Some affect to ignore it all ; as for instance, the Senator from Ohio, (Mr. Wade,J 
who first addressed the Senate. 

Some, again, try to argue against it. That is the wisdom of the ostrich, which 
thinks to escape his pursuers by hiding his head in the sand. 

Others, still, strive to allay apprehension. "Be still," they say ; "there is no suflB- 
cient cause for danger." Grant it ; and the danger is not thereby removed. What 
concerns us, and what we ought to be concerned about, is the magnitude of the evil. 
It matters not how trifling and insignificant the cause. A very small leak will sink 
a line-of-battle ship : and when the noble craft has gone down forever, it will not 
relieve the disaster to point out the smallness of the cause. You may tell me never 
so eloquently how she was able to battle with the storm-king on his own element, 
and to vanquish him; but the fact still remains that the gnawings of an insect has 
sunk her into the abyss. The American Revolution, says Mr. Webster, was fought 
on a preamble. Is it not wiser and better to admit the truth, and look the danger 
full in the face ? Then we may hope to prevent, or at least to avoid it. 

"The prudent man forseelh the evil and hideth himself, but the fool passcth on 
and is punished." 

But there are causes. Mr. President, for the perilous condition of aflairs which is 
apon us. I know Senators say, "state your grievances ; draw up your bill of indict- 
ment ;" implying that there are no grievances, and that no bill of indictment can 
be drawn up. They are in error.. They say, " you complain of the Government ; 
and yet the Government has been, for most of the time, in the hands of the Demo- 
cratic party." Here they are in error again. The complaint is not against the Gov- 
ernment. To assume that it is, is a great mistake. To be sure, the action of the 
Government affecting the institution of slavery has been prejudicial to the South, 
and violative of its constitutional rights. 

That was the case when the admission of my State was resisted, and tiie Missouri 
restriction was enacted into a law. The South has borne the weight of that unconsti- 
tutional restriction for more than a quarter of a century. But we did not complain 
because it was the work, in part, of southern men. 

That was the case again in the passage of the Oregon territorial bill. President 
Polk, a southern man, deprecated the blow aimed against the rights of the citizens 
ol the slaveholding States in that bill as unjust and unequal. Yet, yielding to what 
he deemed the spirit of the Missouri compromise, he signed it. He signed it, because 
Oregon was north of the compromise line of 36° 30'. 

That, still again, was the case in the admission of California. California did not 
lie north of 36'' 30'; and her constitution did not tolerate slavery; and yet she was 
admitted into the Union, in violation of the spirit of the Missouri compromise. 
Moreover, the admission of California destroyed the equilibrium in the Senate be- 
tween the slave-holding and tiie non-slaveholding States forever, and put the South 
at the mercy of the North. 

But the complaint,! repeat, is not against the Government. It is against the action 






of certain States, and of the people of tUose States — States which are the parties to 
the constitutional compact on which rests the Union, of which they and their south- 
ern sisters are alike members. 

They reap special advantages from the Union, in the protection it gives to their 
manufacturing industry; in the bounties it lavishes upon their fishing interests; in 
the discriminations it imposes in favor of their commerce ; in the millions of expen- 
ditures it pours annually into their lap ; and they cry very loudly for its preserva- 
tion, while, at the very same time, they are violating the Constitution which supports 
the Union. They violate the compact on their part, and insist that their southern 
confederates shall be required — nay, coerced by force and by war to keep it on their 
part; as if, in the language of Mr. Webster, "a compact broken on one side was not 
broken on all sides." They pass their personal liberty bills — there are some excep- 
tions; I single them out, and honor them — bills in the very teeth of the Constitution, 
in contempt of it, and intended to deprive their southern brethren of their undoubted 
rights under the Constitution. 

These bills not only do wrong and injury to thftir southern brethren, but they 
intensify the wrong by adding insult to the injury. Tney are passed in States where 
it has been admitted on this floor a fugitive slave scarcely ever goes — not one ia 
forty years, according to the Senator from V^ermont, [Mr. Collamer.] A high- 
spirited people may bear wrong, but it is quite too much to expect that they will 
bear with patience insult added to the wrong. 

. And this, too, from those standing in the relation of friends and brethren. " It was 
not an enemy that reproached me," says the word of inspiration ; "then I could have 
borne it ; but it was thou, a man mine equal, ray guide and mine acquaintance." 

The fugitive escapes. Is he delivered up in obedience to the command of the Con- 
stitution? No, sir; he is harbored and secreted and hastened on his way. If the 
master is passing through the State, is he bid "God speed" in the spirit of friendship 
and fraternity? On the contrary, his slave is enticed away by false promises, or is 
ravished from him by force. Underground railroadsare established, stretching from 
the remotest slaveholding States clear up to Canada. Secret agencies are put to 
work in the very midst of our slaveholding communities, to steal away the slaves. 

The constitutional obligation for the rendition of the fugitive from service is vio- 
lated. The laws of Congress enacted to carry this provision of the Constitution 
into effect are not executed. Their execution is prevented. Prevented, first, by 
hostile and unconstitutional State legislation. Secondly, by a vitiated public senti- 
ment. Thirdly, by the concealing of the slave, so that the United States law cannot 
be made to reach him. And when the runaway is arrested under the fugitive slave 
|aw — which, however, is seldom the case — he is very often rescued. It is said that, 
in such case, when suits are brought against the rescuers, courts and juries will 
enforce the law against them. But all this is accompanied by delay and vexation, 
and the most serious expenses — far exceeding the value of the slave. And even when 
judgment is obtained, it is, in many cases,''valueless, for nothing can be made on 
the execution. The rescuers are either worthless negroes or equally insolvent white 
men. But worse tlian all, these rescues are always accompanied by violence, and 
consequently by the most imminent peril to the master. They are effected by 
mobs of excited and fanatical white men and reckless black men. themselves runa- 
way slaves. 

Sir, I know gentlemen of my own State who have slaves in a northern city, worth 
thousands of dollars,who prefer to bear the loss of them rather than jeopardize their lives 
1° attempting to recover them. The very case to which the Senator from Wisconsin 
[Mr. DooLiTTLE] alluded, is a strong illustration. The slave was rescued by a mob, 
and the life of his master— whom I know well — was put in imminent peril. He has 
never recovered his slave; he has never recovered a dollar of his value, although he 
has spent more than his value in the endeavor. He has recovered judgment, and 
incurred costs, and that is all. And in this very case the supreme court of Wiscon- 
sin committed the judicial outrage of deciding the fugitive slave law unconstitutional. 
And even yet the fruitless litigation is not ended. This lawlessness is felt with 
special seriousness in the border slave States. The underground railroads start 
mostly from these States. Hundreds of thousands of dollars are lost annually. And 
no State loses more heavilv than my own. Kentucky, it is estimated, loses annually 
as much as §200,000. The other border States, no doubt, lose in the same ratio. 
Missouri much more. 

But all these losses and outrages, all this disregard ol constitutional obligation and 



social duty, are as nothing in their bearino: upon the Union, in comparison with the 
animus, the intent and purpose, of which they are at once the fruit and the evidence. 
They demonstrate that the authority of the Constitution has ceased to be respected 
at the North. That instead of fraternal feelings — instead of the good faith which 
ought to subsist between confederates — there is animosity and bad faith. And it is 
rendered worse still by the consideration, that it was not so in the earlier and better 
days of the Republic. Then there was loyalty to the Constitution, and kindness 
towards the South. These are now changed, it is to be feared, into disJoyilty and 
hatred. If so, how remorseless is that hatred? 

"I'nrth hath no hate like love to mahce turned. 
Nor hell a domoii, like a brother scorned. " 

Is this a gloomy and portentous picture? I fear it is not equal to the sad reality. 
A worse feature is y» t to be added. 

These sentiments have become the animating spirit of a political party. They 
have found expression in its platform of principles; they have nominated candidates 
for the Presidency and Vice Presidency; and they have elected them by a strictly 
sectional vote. 

The candidate just elected to the Presidency, was the first man of his party to 
enunciate the dogma that there is an irrepressible conflict between the slaveholding 
and non-slaveholding States. This House of the Constitution, made by our fathers, 
and which they supposed, by being divided into many apartments, was thereby ren- 
dered more commodious for a harmonious family of numerous and happy States; • 
this Union, we have been told, is a house divided against itself. The Senator from 
Ohio, [Mr. Pugh.] not long since, showed, beyond cavil, that Mr. Lincoln, in utter- 
ing that sentiment, had reference to slavery in the States — not merely in the Terri- 
tories — but also and especially in the States. 

Moreover, Mr. Lincoln has announced the dangerous dogma that, in point of 
political rights, the negro is the equal of the white man. In a speech made by him- 
at Springfield, Illinois, on the 17th of July, 1858, he said : 

" I adhere to the Declaration of Independence. If Judge Douglas and his friends 
' are not willing to stand by it, let them come up and amend it. Let them make 

* it read that ail men are created equal, except negroes." 

Again : 

"My declarations upon this subject may be misrepresented, but cannot be misun- 
' derstood. I have said that I do not understand the Declaration to mean that all 
' men were created equal in all respects. They are not equal in color; but I suppose 
' that il does mean to declare that all men are equal in some respects; they are equal 
' in their right to 'life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.- Certainly, tlie negro 
' is not our equal in color — perhaps not in many other respects; still, in the right to 
' put in his mouih the bread his own hands have earned, he is the equal of every 
' other man, white or black." 

This needs no comment ; its meaning is plain and unequivocal. I now beg to call 
the attention of the Senate for a moment only, to the platform upon which Mr. Lin- 
coln secured his election. Considering the history and antecedents of this party, no 
man can doubt but that the following portion of the second resolution was intended 
to be applied to negro slaves : 

" We solemnly reassert the self-evident truths that all are endowed by their Crea- 
' tor with certain inalienable rights, among which are those of life, liberty, and the 
' pursuit of happiness; that governments are instituted among men to secure the en- 

* joyment of these rights." 

And that it denies that there can beany right of property in slaves, is clearly shown 
in the fifth resolution, in which it is declared that the present Democratic Adminis- 
tration has exceeded the worst apprehensions of the convention, (the Chicago con- 
vention,) among other things, " in construing the personal relations between master 
and servant to involve," as they say, "an unqualified property in persons." And 
again, the eighth resolution is as fullows : 

"That the normal condition of all the territory of t'e United States is that of 
' freedom. That as our republican fathers, Aviien they had abolished slavery in all 

* our national territory, ordained that no person should be deprived of life, liberty, or 
' property, without due process of law, it bi comes our duty, by legislation, whenever 
' such legislation is necessary, to maintain this provision of the Constitution against 
' all attempts to violate it. And we deny the authority ol' Congress, of a Territorial 
' Legislature, or of any individuals, to give legal exit-tence to slavery in any Terri- 
< tory of the United States." 



Now, coQsider this in connection with the declaration made on the floor of the 
United States Senate in 1858, by the Senator from New York, [Mr. Seward,] who 
may be considered the leader of the party, that the Supreme Court of the United 
States must be reformed, which means that the national judiciary must be abolition- 
ized ; and is it not evident, that the writ of habeas corpus might be brought into use to 
effect the liberation of the slaves in the slaveholding States? Is not such a purpose 
palpable, and such a result probable ? What, then, could the slaveholding States 
expect, after the election of such a candidate upon such a platform, but that all the 
patronage and all the power of the Federal Government, in all its departments, would 
be brought to bear upon the institution of slavery in the South, in order to compass 
its destruction ? 

To this effect have been the plain and unmistakable avowals of the Republican 
party since the election of its candidates. It has constituted the theme of their re- 
joicings ; it has rung Irom the press; it has spoken from the rostrum. Leading 
editors and politicians have reiterated it. The attitude and temper of the party have 
been not merely more arrogant, but more hostile and more threatening, since their 
triumph than before, evincing a determination to use their victory against the rights 
of the slaveholding States of the Union, regardless of the consequences. 

The New York Tribune, which may bs said to have been thj war-horse of Mr. 
■ Lincoln's campaign, and whose editor is supposed to have been his special friend 
in the Chicago convention, on the 22d of December last, published the following : 

" We are enabled to state, in the most positive terms, that Mr. Lincoln is utterly 
' opposed to anv concession or compromise that shall yield one iota of the position 
' occupied by the Republican party on the subject of slavery in the Territories ; and 
' that he stands now, as he stood in May last, when he accepted the nomination for 
' the Presidency, square upon the Chicago platform." 

And the Springfield Journal, which is considered Mr. Lincoln's home-organ, after 
the States bordering on the Gulf of Mexico had begun to evince a determination to 
take the steps deemed necessary by them to insure their domestic tranquility, pub- 
lished an article in which occurs the foUowiug strong language : 

"Let the secessionists understand it — let the press proclaim it — let it fly on the 
' wings of the lightning, and fall like a thunderbolt among those now plotting treason 
* in convention, that the Republican party, that the great North, aided by hundreds 
' of thousands of patriotic men in the slave States, have determined to preserve the 
' Union — peaceably if they can ; forcibly, if they must." 

In a speech made by him, at a public meeting of his partisan friends in Mas- 
sachusetts, shortly after the late presidential election, assembled in order to rejoice 
over their victory, one of the Senators on this floor fiom that State [Mr. WilsonJ 
is reported to have said, that they now had their heel upon the neck of the slave- 
power. 

And Mr. Giddings, of Ohio, who has the reputation of having procured the in- 
sertion in the Chicago platform of the portion most hostile to southern institutions, 
has lately held forth in the following strain : 

"Let it be understood that we do not recognize the right of any member of Con- 
' gress to make platforms for us ; that we shall not recognize their right or assumption 
•* to abandon our principles or sacrifice our honor, at the dictates of our enemies, whom 
' we have triumphantly vanquished at the ballot-box." 

But, Mr. President, there was no need of his holding such language to the mem- 
bers of Congress of his party in either House. We know full well, from the reports 
of the committee of thirty-three in the House, and of the committee of thirteen in 
the Senate, and from the temper evinced by the members of the Republican party, 
including both Senators and Representatives, that they have shown a disposition as 
unyielding and defiant as even Mr. Giddings could have desired. Nothing is to be 
conceded, it would seem, even if the destruction of the Union is to be the conse- 
quence. 

Sir, at the formation of the Constitution, twelve of the thirteen States were slave- 
holding. And even Massachusetts herself, had been a slaveholding colony; nor had 
she ever abolished slavery by any statute law. They all recognized the right of pro- 
perty in slaves. 

The Constitution was adapted to the institution of slavery as it then existed, and 
was in accordance with the public sentiment of the whole country at the time. Ac- 
cordingly, no man doubted that it recognized property in slaves, and was designed to 
protect it wherever the national flag was unfurled, on'sea or on land. No question 



was made as to the right of the master to carry his slaves with hiru into the commoa 
Territories of the Union, Even the men of Massachusetts would no doubt have 
conceded it. Its denial would have lessened the market, and consequently depreciated 
the price that the New England slave trader might get for the slaves he was import- 
ing from Africa by the ship load. The flag of the Union protected this property on 
its passage from Africa to the slave States of the South. The treaties of the country 
with foreign nations especially stipulated for the ideranification of the loss of slaves. 
This was done in Jay's treaty. It was done in the treaty of Ghent; and the treaty 
for the acquisition of Louisiana recognizes aud protects the right of property in 
slaves. 

But the times have changed. States have changed their institutions; and now 
eighteen of them are non-slaveholding — a majority in number, and a majority in 
population — aiid now the political power of the country is in their hands. But the 
Constitution is not changed. No amendment has been added to it on the subject of 
slavery. It remains exactly the same to-day that it was in 17S9. Yet, Mr. Presi- 
dent, what do we now behold ? A political party has been organized upon the one 
central idea of hostility to, slavery, and its ultimate certain abolition in every sec- 
tion and State of our broad republic ; and it has triumphed. It has wrought a rev- 
olution in the public sentiment of the country against slavery, and is about to inau- 
gurate a revolution in the policy and administration of the Government for its 
extinction. 

Mr. President, has the South no cause fur alarm lor the safety of her institutions, 
and the security of her rights? Is not her very existence at stake ? How long could 
she retain the mstitution of slavery after the whole power of the pi'ederal Govern- 
ment shall have been brought to bear upon her for its destruction ? Think what 
could be efltctcd by the Federal legislation. Abolition cl slavery in the District of 
Columbia; abolition in the arsenals, dock-yards, and forts; outlawry of it on the 
high seas, and wherever the flag of the Union floats ; exclusion of it from the com- 
mon Territories belonging equally to all the States ; circumscribing it as with a wall 
of fire within the States. 

Then let the long and strong arm of the Executive power of the Government be 
put forth for its extinction within the States. Sir, it will be mighty to the pulling 
down of the strong holds of southern institutions and rights. Against almost every- 
thing else, but this, the South might protect herself. Cohorts of Federal office-hold- 
ers, abolitionists, may be sent into her midst to exert the patronage, influence, and 
power of their offices, and to plot and conspire against her property, and her peace. 
Postmasters — more than thirteen thousand, with all their employes, controlling the 
mails and loading them down with incendiary documents. Add to these, land offi- 
cers, surveyors of land, surveyors of ports, collectors of customs, assistant treasurers, 
judges and marshals, each of these, with all his subordinates, intent upon one aim. 
What institution could withstand such an invasion, such sapping and mining? Even 
the Senator from Ohio [Mr. Wade] is not surprised that the citizens of the slave- 
holding States should begin to arouse themselves from their supineness. 

The slave property of the South, sir, is worth three and a half or four billion dol- 
lars. Is it to be expected that a brave and intelligent people would submit without 
resistance, without a murmur, to the destruction of such an amazing amount of 
property ? Sir, no people, in any age of the world, in any country, or clime, under 
any form of government, has ever submitted to the destruction of a hundredth part 
of it without resistance aud revolution. 

But there is a more horrible result still to follow, especially in those States where 
the black slaves greatly outnumber the free whites. Tiiis I forbear to hold up to 
view. I draw a vail over it. Let not its horrors be even suggested to the imag- 
ination. 

I am satisfied, Mr. President, that there exists, and is spreading among the masses 
of the citizens of the southern section of our Union, alarm in all the slaveholding 
States, real and profound alarm, for the safety both of their property and of the lives 
of their wives and children. The President has sketched this m the following sen- 
tences of his last annual message: 

"The immediate peril arises not so much from these causes as from the fact that 
' the incessant and violent agitation of the slavery question throughout the North, 
' for the last quarter of a century, has at Icngtli produced its malign influence on the 
' slaves, and inspired them with vague notions of freedom. Hence, a sense of secu- 
' rity no longer exists around the family altar. This feeling of peace at home has 



given place to apprehensions of servile insurrection. Many a matron throughout the 

* South retires at night in dread of what may befall herself and her children before 
' the morning. Should this apprehension of domestic danger, whether real or ima- 
' ginary, extend and intensify itself until it shall pervade the masses of the southern 
' people, then disunion will become inevitable. Self-preservation is the first law of 
' nature, and has been implanted in the heart of man by his Creator for the wisest 
' purpose; and no political union, however fraught with blessings and benefits in all 

* other respects, can long continue, if the necessary consequence be to render the 
' homes and the firesides of nearly half the parties to it habitually and hopelessly in- 
' secure. Sooner or later the bonds of such a Union must be severed." 

This very alarm is one of the most intolerable of the grievances inflicted on the 
South by the ceaseless and systematic aggressions of northern abolitionism and ne- 
groism. No people can consent to live in the midst of alarms by day and terror by 
night. Last of all others will the American people in theslaveholding States of this 
Confederacy consent to it. 

Sir, the "terror by night" is ranked by the sacred penman in the same category 
with the "arrow that flieth by day, and the pestilence that walketh in darkness, and 
the destruction that wasteth at noon-day." 

I am also satisfied, sir, that there is a settled purpose on the part of the people of 
the southern States to have the difficulties now brought upon them settled fully and 
forever, and settled at once. Nothing short of this will meet the exigencies of the 
present crisis. Aud in order to such settlement, irrcpealable amendments to the 
Constitution ought to be made, covering the following points : 

1. Express and unequivocal recognition of the right of property in slaves. 

2. A similar recognition of the right of the owner to take his slaves into the com- 
mon territory of the United States, and to have his right of property in them pro- 
tected by the Federal Government there, and wherever else its jurisdiction extends. 

3. That Congress shall have no power to abolish slavery in places under its imme- 
diate jurisdiction situated within the limits of the States that permit the holding of 
slaves. 

4. Nor within the District of Columbia, so long as slavery shall exist in either of 
the States of Virginia or Maryland, nor without the consent of the inhabitants, nor 
without just compensation first made to such owners as do not consent to such 
abolishment. 

5. Nor shall Congress have power to prohibit or hinder the transportation ol' slaves 
from one State to another, nor to the District of Columbia, nor to a Territory of the 
United States. 

6. That, when the owner shall be prevented from retaking his fugitive slave, or 
when such fugitive shall be rescued from him by force, he shall receive compensation 
for the value or his slave. 

All this the slaveholding States ought to have, and all this the non-siaveholding 
ought to be willing to concede. Tliey ought to be willing to make these con- 
cessions, first, for the sufficient and commanding reason that they would relieve our 
common country. 

Secondly, They are fully warranted by the Constitution as it now stands, and are 
in perfect concord with both its provisions and spirit. According to the opinion of 
the Supreme Court of the United States — the appropriate and the appointed tri- 
bunal for the arbitrament of such questions — the tribunal of last resort — they are 
guaranteed by the Constitution, as it was made by our fathers. 

Thirdly, The Republican party has brought about the condition of things which 
has made concessions necessary, and that same partv ought to be ready to grant the 
concessions which are needed in order to pjmedy these evils. If they have done 
wrong, or inflicted injury, both justice and magnanimity require that they should 
make prompt and full reparation. In this, at least, you will receive the hearty and 
cordial co-operation of the Democracy of the North. The northern Democracy have 
always been willing to sustain the Constitution according to its true construction, 
and so as to secure to the citizens of the slaveholding States their just and equal 
rights. 

Fourthly, You of the Republican party alone have the power to heal the dissen- 
sions which are dissolving the Union. The South cannot do it. The political 
power adequate to the task has passed out of their hands into yours. The northern 
Democracy are also unable to accomplish it. They can only aid you. 



8 

Fifthly, The northern Slatfs constitute the more populous and the more powerful 
section. Consequently you incur no danger by making the concessions. 

Sixtlily, You are the victorious and the dominant party, and you ought not to be 
willing to abuse your power to the oppression of the vaiiquished and weaker section. 
Nay, more ; standing in a position where a want of generosity would be a reproach, 
you ought ever to be prompt to tender overtures. 

And, lastly, the South asks no pecuniary advantage. She only demands safety. 
Can it be refused ? 

Mr. President, the honorable Senator from Kentucky [Mr. Crittenden] has in- 
troduced into the Senate a joint resolution, proposing a number of articles as 
amendments to the Constitution. In the main, these articles meet my approbation. 
But I frankly confess I have objections to that one — the first of the series — which 
proposes to extend the "Missouri restriction" line of 36'=' 39' of north latitude 
through the territory of the United States, westwardly to California, excluding 
slavery north of the line, and requiring that it shall be protected by the territorial 
government, in all its departments, south of the line. And yet, sir, so anxious am 
I to relieve the country, that I would consent to waive my objections, aud vote for 
the article, if peace and harmony could be restored, and the Union be preserved. I 
would vote for the article, although I do not think it will do equal justice to the 
South. The partition of the territory it proposes to make, is unequal and dispropor- 
tional, and for that reason unjust. It gives by far the larger part of the common 
territory to the North — at least four-fifths of it. It says, to be su-re, that the States 
that m:iy be admitted into the Union, formed in this portion, shall come in with or 
without slavery, accordingly as their constitutions shall provide. But, sir, we al! 
well know, that if the slaveholder is never allowed to go there with his property, 
no slaveholding Stale will ever be formed there. This portion of the territory, 
therefore, which, as I have already said, is four times larger than the other, is inevi- 
tably forever set apart for free States, 

But ij the other portion, which is by far the smaller one, secured to the slavehold- 
ing Slates ? By no means. For the non-slaveholder may settle there as well as the 
slaveholder. And, sir, all the northern portion being secured to the North, the emi- 
grant aid societies will be able to devote all their means and energies to occupy the 
smaller southern jiart. It will, of course, be much easier to make the conquest of 
the one-fifth than it would of the whale. It may be accomplished in one-fifth of 
the lime. This proposition, it seems to uv, gives them a more favorable opportuni- 
ty even than they now have without it, of accomplishing their cherished object of 
surrounding the slaveholding States with a cordon of hostile non-slaveholding ones, 
and so either to smotiier the institution, or to make it destroy itself; the .scorpion, 
as they say, surrounded by fire. 

If 1 remember correctly the terms of the proposition offered by the Senator from 
Minnesota, [Mr. Rice,] in regard to the Territories, I prefer it to that of the Senator 
from Kentucky, [Mr. Chittenden.] But I speak of the proposition of the Sena- 
tor from Minnesota only from recollection. I have it not before me. 

Mr. President, I repeat, that, in my opinion, the difficulties and dangers which are 
thickening around us every hour,. can be dissipated but by one course. Concessions 
must be made full and certain, and that without delay. There is but one other alter- 
native left, and that is a dissolution of our beloved Union. 

And ;;u\v, Senators of the Uepublicau party, if you are resolved to force this alter- 
native, and refuse everything else, all the slaveholdiuir States must, of necessity, 
make common cause — the border and more central ones with their sisters of the south- 
ern extreme ; and thus it will be the secession, not of one State only, nor of the cot- 
ton States merely ; but of fifteen States. They have common institutions and interests, 
common ties and sympathies, and kindred blood. 

I apprehend that some harbor the belief that there is diflerence of opinion among 
the slaveholding States, and that when the trial comes, there will be di Here nee of 
action. They imagine that the border States will refuse to go with the more southern 
ones. This, sir, I am sure, is a great mistake, God grant it may not prove fatal. 

My own State is a border slaveholding Slate. She loves the Constitution which 
supports this Union with an afiection as ardent and as profound as that of any of her 
confederated sisters. The principles of that Consiitution constitute the very life-blood 
of her body politic. They animate and quicken her social system, and thrill and 
vibrate through its every nerve and fibre. Her gallant sons have always been proud 
*' to march under the flag and keep step to the music of the Union." They have 



0.? 

rushed to every battle-field where the honor of the Union has been at stake. And 
when, in our last war, Mexicans were heeding the exhortation " to welcome Ameri- 
cans to Mexican soil with bloody hands to hospitable graves," they were quick to 
accept the bloody greeting. But if you are determined to push and precipitate dis- 
union upon the country, though I am not authorized to speak for Missouri, yet I do 
feel authorized to express my belief, that she will not hesitate to take her position with 
the South. Her institutions, her interests, present and prospective, her lineage, and 
the manners and habits and sympathies of her people, all "grapple her to the South 
with hooks of steel." 

The institution of slavery was planted upon her soil when it was first purchased 
by Mr. Jefferson from the First Consul of the French. It is there still, with the an- 
cient inhabitants of the upper Louisiana and their descendants. It has been greatly 
augmented and strengthened by the American immigration. It constitutes the wealth 
of her citizens, to the large extent of perhaps one hundred million of dollars. It con- 
tributes in a large degree to the support of her agricultural industry. It produces] two 
of her great staples almost] exclusively — hemp and tobacco. 

Mr. President, let it not be supposed that Missouri will be deterred from taking her 
position because she has non-slaveholding States on her borders, some of whose people 
may be hostile to slavery. 

Sir, she has already suffered deeply, grievously, from this cause; suffered not only 
by the loss of property, but by the loss of the lives of her citizens. .No State has 
suffered more, none perhaps so much. Tiie underground railroad has been vigorously 
operated against her. Abolition incursions have been made into her territory, destroy- 
ing both life and property. John Brown made his first raids into Missouri. As re- 
cently as the commencement of this very session of Congress, she has been compelled 
to march a regiment of her citizen soldiery to her southwestern border, to protect her 
peaceful agriculturists against the incursions for robbery and murder of Montgom- 
ery and his band of " jayhawkers " and desperadoes. And at this very moment she 
has a patrol of three companies of rangers and one of artillery upon that border, in 
order to maintain her own sovereignty upon her own soil. 

Will she be worse off, when those of the residents in the neighboring States who 
are the foes of her institutions and her peace, shall be regarded by her as such, than 
she has been, while they were treated as friends ? In tlie changed posture of affairs 
her citizens will be more vigilant and better prepared. And vigilance and prepara- 
tion are the best guarantees of safety. 

Mr. President, I am sorry to say that Missouri seems to be the first of the slave- 
holding States selected after Mr. Lincoln's election for abolition attack. The New 
York Tribune, one of the most prominent of the organs of the abolitionists, shortly 
after the late presidential election, contained an article on that election. In that ar- 
ticle it descanted upon the results and bearings of the election generally, and also 
especially in reference to Missouri. It used the following language : 

" Deeply as we all rejoice in the general result of the election, there is even greater 
' reason for pleasure and hope in the condition of things it thus reveals in Missouri. 
' Here, then, is a slave State entering upon a struggle to rid herself of the greatest 
' curse that can ever befall a people. She needs our help. She needs the encourage- 
' ment of the moral influence of the North oii behalf of freedom. She needs, above 
' all, that the tide of free emigration pouring westward should, as far as possible, find 
* homes upon her soil. This part of the subject, especially, we commend to the atten- 
' tion of all parlies who propose to seek for themselves new abodes in the Great 
' West." 

But, sir, if disruption is to be forced upon us, we can at least guard ourselves 
against incursions of that sort. 

Mr. President, I ought not to say, I will not say, that Missouri would be better off 
in the event of secession than she is now. But I may say, that I cannot see how she 
can be greatly worse off. But, sir, I do not present before the Senate of the United 
States the reasons why Missourians, in case of a division of the Confederacy into a 
northern and southern one, will fix the destiny of their State with the South. These 
reasons are properly reserved for another locality. 

Yet, Mr. President, I am satisfied that the citizens of Missouri do not desire to see 
the disruption of this Government. It would rend the great heart-strings of the en- 
tire State. She would submit to the most painful catastrophe, with feelings like 
those with which an affectionate daughter would part forever from her long-loved 
and deeply venerated mother, Will you not spare her the mournful separation. 



10 

Mr. President, I do not propose to argue the right, under the Constitution, of sepa- 
rate State secession. The controversy, in my opinion, has progressed beyond that 
stage of it. Secession is now already an accomplished fact. It has been thrice re- 
pealed. To stop to argue its constitutionality, is to fall behind the march of events. 
It would be something like discussing the legality of the judgment of a court, after 
its sentence had been executed and the convict hanged. % 

Secession having actually taken place in four States, and just on the point of 
taking place in at least three others, we must now deal with its consequences. 

FoUowin"- after secession, there comes upon us a question of more momentous 
import; and that is: has the Federal Government, by the Constitution, the right to 
coerce a seceding State back into the Union by force? In the emergency which is 
upon us, this is now a practical question ; and it is as momentous as it is urgent. 

Gentlemen on the other side seem to me to approach the subject under wrong im- 
pressions. Tiicy seem to think that the States were made for the Federal Govern- 
ment, and not the Federal Government for the States. But the truth is, that the 
Federal Government was made by the States for the States. 

Now suppose that Government becomes hostile in its spirit, and deslructive in its 
action, to the rights smd institutions of the people of a portion of the States ; what 
then? Let the spirit which dictated our Declaration of Independence answer. On 
the other hand, suppose it fails to answer the purpose of its creation, and instead of 
insuring domestic tranquility, destroys it ; what then ? Let the example of the rev- 
olutionary fathers, in withdrawing themselves and their States from the Union of 
the old Confederation answer. 

The Senator from Ohio [Mr. Pugh] has said that he will not stretcii forth his 
hand to remove the vail behind which stands the Atlas which supports on his should- 
ers alone the firmament of our federative system. But, sir, I have no such aversion. 
I am willing to see the clanger that lies before us. If this Government is about to 
rush into the vortex of ruin, I want to know it. If civil war is removed from us 
but by a single step, do not let me be ignorant of it, lest I take that step in the dark. 
Hide from me the day when the dying agonies of my country shall begin ; but do 
not hide from me the lawless and fatal policy which must inevitably plunge her into 
the mortal strife. 

By the tenth amendment of the Constitution — ■ 

" The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibi- 
' ted by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people." 

The power to coerce, therefore, does not exist — cannot exist, unless it has been 
delegated to the United States by the Constitution. But there is no delegation oi 
any such power. It follows, of necessity, that the Federal Government does not 
possess it. And it will not suffice to argue that the Government ought to possess it. 
All such argument is confuted and confounded by the single and simple truth, that 
the Constitution nowhere gives the power. 

Nor will it ansAver to attempt to laise the power by implication. 1 he very terms 
of the constitutional provision just quoted, preclude the implication, expressly and 
emphatically, and forever. They utterly exclude any such conclusion. 

Yet some persist in the attempt to deduce the power from the nature of compacts. 
I understood the Senator from Tennes.ee, who first addressed the Senate, to pursue 
that course. It is said that ''• when two parlies make a compact, there results to each 
the power of compelling the other to execute it." 

Results from what? Such power can only result, either, first, Irom the compact 
itself, or second, from the fact of making it. It does not result from the compact, 
because we have already seen that the compact itself gives no such power to the 
General Government. It cannot result from the fact of making the compact, because 
the compact itself expressly declares, that it shall not vest except by Us own express 

delegation. , -r- i i /^ 

But the States made the compact— the Constitution— not with the federal (gov- 
ernment, but each other. The Federal Government never was a party to any com- 
pact with the States. Therefore, by the very postulate itself, that Governmeiit can 
have no right to enforce the execution of a compact to which it never was a party. 
The postulate assumed, goes upon the further assumption, that the Constitution is a 
compact between the Federal Government and the States. But that assumption is 

false in fact. c c -ux 

If such a power, therefore, as is assumed in the postulate— the power of lorciDle 
coercion— exists anywhere, it must belong to the other contracting States, which are 



11 

parties to the Federal Constitution, and not to the Federal Government. Tlie Fed- 
eral Government is the result of the compact, and that is all. It can only use the 
powers given to it in express terras by the compact, nothing more. Unless the 
power, therefore, is vested in the Federal Government by the very terms of the con- 
pact, or in other words by the Constitution, it can neither coerce a State to remain 
in the Union, nor punish her when she goes out. But no such power is delegated 
by the Conslit-ution to the Federal Government. 

The absence of this power is no casus omissus in the Constitution. So far from 
it, the very point was presented and pressed upon the convention which framed 
the Constitution, at the very commencement of its deliberations. The convention 
met, and commenced its labors on the 25th of May, 1787. Only four days there- 
after, on the 29th, Mr. Randolph presented the plan of a Federal Constitution. 
It consisted of a series of fifteen resolutions. The sixth resolution contained the 
following: 

" That the national Legislature ought to be empowered to call forth the force 
' of the Union against any member of the Union failing to fulfill its duly under 
'the articles thereof." 

On the motion of Mr. Madison, this proposition was postponed, and it was 
never again called up. And it was upon this occasion that he uttered the sen- 
timents quoted a few days since by the Senator from Louisiana, [Mr. Benjamin,] 
in his speech on the question of State secession! (Madison Papers, 5 Elliot's 
Debates, pp. 127, 128, 139, 140.) 

Afterwards on the 15th of June, Mr. Patterson proposed a project of a Con- 
stitution. This also consisted of a series of nine resolutions. His sixth resolu- 
tion also proposed to give to the General Government the right to coerce a State. 
This too, was postponed by the convention, and was never again renewed. 
(Madison Papers, pp. 192, 198.) 

So that the proposition to give to the General Government the power to coerce 
a State, was distinctly put to the convention twice over, on different days, and 
each time it was refused. 

The convention was exceedingly carel'ul and scrupulous on this point of the 
power of the Federal Government, in all of its departments, over the States. 

The sixth resolution of Mr. Randolph's plan contained another proposition akin to 
the coercion of a State. It was "that the national Legislature ought to be empow- 
ered to negative all laws passed by the several States, contravening, in tlie opinion of 
the national Legislature, the articles of union or any treaty subsisting under the au- 
thority of the Union." 

This power was first agreed to. This was on the 31st of May. But afterwards,, 
on the 8th of June, it was reconsidered and voted down. It was never again renewed. 
(Madison Papers, pp. 139, 174.) 

On the 18th of June, Mr. Hamilton also proposed a series of resolutions, embody- 
ing his ideas of a Constitution. His tenth resolution proposed, in order to prevent 
the passage of laws by the particular States contrary to the laws of the United 
States, that the President should have power to appoint the Governor of each State 
who should have a negative upon the laws of the States of which he was Governor. 
(Madison Papers, p. 205.) This was also refused. Again : it was proposed, in the 
eighth resolution of Mr. Randolph's plan, to give to the President and a convenient 
number of the Federal judiciary a power of revision of the laws of the several States. 
And this was rejected. (Madison Papers, p. 128.) 

But it is said that what is contended for is not coercion of a State ; but only that 
the Federal Executive is bound by the Constitution to see that the laws of the United 
States are faithfully executed. This I understand to be the position of the Senator 
from Tennessee, to whom I have already alluded. Such I infer to be the position of 
the President elect, if the newspapers of his party which have spoken on that subject 
truly give his position. Let us examine this a little. Suppose a State secedes, in 
the exercise either of a constitutional or a revolutionary right — I do not care which, 
for the purposes in hand. Slie passes laws in conflict with the laws of the United 
States; they may be in regard to the revenue and its collection, or the carrying of 
the mails, or anything else. An officer of the State, duly appointed such, acting in 
pursuance of her laws, and in the execution of them, does an act in violation of the 
laws of the United States. The Federal Executive undertakes to enforce the Fed- 
eral laws against him. Forthwith the sovereignty of the State, whose agent and 
servant he is, and whose command he is obeying, is interposed to protect him. On 



12 

the other hand, the United States Government brings its power into play to punish 
him. Here is necessarily conflict and coercion. You may call it the execution of 
the laws of the United States. It is, nevertheless, coercion, and coercion of the 
sovereiojnty of a State. 

Mr. President, this is reaching coercion by an indirect and roundabout mode; and 
I confess that that fact does not render its features any the less abhorrent to ray 
mind. On the contrary, it makes them only the more so. You coerce each indi- 
vidual citizen of the State, and yet you say you do not coerce the State. Then you 
may hang as a traitor eacli individual citizen of the State, and the State will not 
be depopulated, nor lose a single soul. Sir, such a result is not what is contem- 
plated by the Constitution of the United States, when it makes it the duty of the 
President to see that tlie laws are faithfully executed. That Constitution never 
intended that the Federal laws should be executed by force of arms within the 
limits of a State which has, in the most solemn and authentic form, withdrawn itself 
from the Union, and displaced the jurisdiction of the General Government. It has 
respect to the execution of the laws of the Union only upon the soil of a State while 
she remains within the Union, and subject to its jnrisdiction. 

And here, sir, is the exact point of difference between secession and nullification. 
In the latter case, the State, still abiding in the Union, and acknowledging the juris • 
diction of the Federal Government, refuses to obey the laws. In the former case she 
has separated herself from the Union, and put off its jurisdiction. To my mind, the 
difference is a clear, a broad one? 

But, sir, to enforce the laws within the limits of a State after she has seceded is 
an impossibility. This position was vindicated a few days ago to the Senate by 
the honorable Senator from Virginia, [Mr. Hunter,] much more ably than I can 
hope to be able to do it; and I shall tlierefore forbear to go over the ground much 
better occupied by him, and shall invoke the attention of the Senate to but a single 
view of it. 

The State has withdrawn herself from the Union. There is not a single Federal 
officer within her boundaries — no judges, no clerks, no marshals. In our Govern- 
ment the laws can be executed only by the courts and their officers. The President, 
in fulfilling the duty imposed on him by the Constitution to see that the laws are 
faithfully executed, has no right to act as judge, jury, and executioner. He is no 
autocrat. 

If the United States law is violated, the offense is cognizable under the Constitu- 
tion, only by the Federal judiciary. A court must be called; a Federal judge must 
preside; a United States marshal must be there to execute process, and a district 
attorney to prosecute the offense. But all this, in the case under consideration, is 
impossible, because there is not a single one of all those officers within the limits of 
the State. Do you say you will change the laws, and send foreign judges and mar- 
shals into the State? Well, you make the alteration of the law, and you send your 
judge and marshal to the State. But the State will not receive them. She excludes 
them by force of arms. If you are determined to force them upon her, it must be 
done by Federal troops, and at the point of the bayonet. Here is war. But suppose 
you shall succeed in forcing your officers into the seceding State, and you open your 
courts. The party to be proceeded against must be indicted by a grand jury. This 
is the first step. Without it you cannot put him on his trial. But the grand jury 
must be citizens of the State. Each one of them is prohibited by the authority of 
his State from finding a true bill, and therefore he cannot do it. And each one may 
be liable to the very same kind of a prosecution, and therefore he will uot do it. 
And the next step, which is also an indispensable one, is, that the accused is entitled 
by the Constitution to be tried by a traverse jury, which must also be composed of 
citizens of the State. And they, too, for the same reasons already stated in regard 
to the grand jury, will not, and cannot, convict the accused. The array of the 
United States cannot be made to play any principal part in the process of enforcing 
the laws of the United States. 

Nor is the President authorized by the Constitution to allow the Army of the 
United States to play any principal pan in the process of enforcing the laws. He 
can only send the troops to act in the capacity of a pc/.sse, under the direction of the 
civil authorities. These authorities must make demand for the /)C.sse, and take the 
charge of it. But in the case supposed there is neither civil officer to make demaad 
for the aid of the troops, nor is there any judgment of a court to be executed. 

Mow, Mr. President, suppose it be conceded that this kind of coercion is constitu- 
tional, and that you are able to put it into operation : what result have you reached 



13 

JO the process of it ? You have inaugurated war — nothing less, nothing else. Sir 
war is the most terrible of all calamities under all circumstances, and for the most 
righteous of causes. It stands first in the dreadful triumvirate for the scourgino' of 
the nations— war, pestilence, and famine. War first and chiefest of the three. But 
this would be the most wicked, most horrible of all wars. It would be civil inter- 
necine war; perhaps also servile war. 

In the dreary catalogue of wars that have cursed and depopulated and ravaged 
the earth, there is none which is a parallel to what such a war must be. The civil 
wars of the Roman empire in ancient days, and those of the British in more mod- 
ern, are no types of what this American civil war must be. It will be a war of sec- 
tions— the North against the South, and the South against the North. It will be a 
war of families — son against father, brother against brother, and husband against 
his wife's brother. It will be bitter, bloody, remorseless, and exterminatinc. No 
man can tell when it will terminate, and no fancy depict its horrors, its universal de- 
vastation and ruin. The picture drawn by Mr. Burke of the havoc inflicted by 
Hyder Ali upon the Carnatic, will scarcely convey an adequate idea of it. 

Sir, is any Senator on this floor prepared to resort to coercion in order to achieve 
such results? Ought any Senator to be willing to deny to the South the constitu- 
tional concessions and guarantees necessary to maintain her rights and safety, at the 
risk of incurring these consequences? 

Mr. President, for myself, I denounce the policy and the construction of the Con- 
stitution which must lead to such disasters. If we must separate, let us separate in 
peace. If Republicanism, having beaten down and subdued the gallant Democracy 
of the North, is determined, in spite of constitutional guarantees, in spite of social 
duties, in spite of justice and right — is determined to exterminate the institution of 
slavery from every foot of the soil of every Slate in the Union, or else to force the 
slaveholding States to go out of the Union — let our separation be without the shed- 
ding of blood. 

" Let there be no strife, I pray thee, between thee and me, and betv/een thy herd- 
' men and my herdmen, for we are brethern. Separate thyself, I pray thee, from me. 
' If thou wilt take the left hand, then I will go the right; or if thou depart to the 
' right hand, then I will go to the left." — Genesis, 13, 8. 

Mr. President, South Carolina has, by solemn ordinance, declared herself with- 
drawn from the Union, and repealed the act by which she ratified the Constitution 
and entered into the Confederacy. This has been done by a convention deliberately 
called by her people for that purpose. Mississippi.^Alabama, and Florida, are in the 
same position. Other States are following close and hard in the same path. 

Sir, I am sorry that the good people of these States, in the exercise of their high 
discretion for securing their sacred constitutional rights, had not seen fit to consult 
with their sister slaveholding States, before adopting this policy. These States 
all have the same institutions, the same rights, the same blood. Their cause is a 
common one ; their policy, it seems to me, ought to have been a common one also. 

But, Senators, I will never give my vote nor my consent either to coerce or to ex- 
ecute the laws by force of arms in any one of them. To do that would be to wa-.e 
war upon them ; and that war could have but one object, and that to subjugate the 
•State, and bring her back a captive in chains. Is there any Senator who would be 
willing to achieve that scandalous and monstrous result, even if it were possible to 
accomplish it? The Constitution of the United States was never designed by the 
fathers to be prostituted to any such base purpose of oppression and outrage. It has 
no aptitude to coerce and hold in unwilling union, alienated, hostile, and beligerent 
States; nor to maintain a centralized despotic power to dominate over subjugated 
provinces, and to coerce their allegiance by die bayonet and the sword. 

It is clear that in the attitude now held by South Carolina and the other 
seceding States towards the Federal Government, the laws of the United States can 
be executed there only by the military power of the Government. The attempt will 
be resisted by arms. The very first step, therefore, is, inevitably, civil war. 
Other States will rush to their aid ; and it will be a war of one half of the States 
against the other half. How can any friend of the Union bring himself to sup- 
port or countenance such a measure. It will be a dissolution of the Union in 
blood. In such case, there can be no hope of reconstruction. No man can be 
so blind as not to see it. 

But if dissolution must come; let it be peaceful. Then there may be a hope for 
reconstruction; fraternal feelings may be restored ; the evil spirit of abolitionism 



14 

may be exorcised ; mutual interests and wants may, as at the first, again attract the 
separated States togetlier. They may again send up their delegates to another coa- 
vention, to make another Constitution, which shall indeed "form a more perfect 
Union, establish justice, insure domestic tranquillity, provide for the common defense 
promote the general welfare, and secure the blessings of liberty to themselves and 
their posterity." And the third Union may be more lasting and glorious than either 
that which bore us triumphantly through the revolutionary war, or that which has 
elevated us since that epoch, to that height of happiness and power which has drawn 
upon us the gaze and the admiration of the whole civilized world. 

But far better would it be, Mr. President, that dissolution should be arrested 
and civil war prevented; that timely concessions should be made, amply sufficient 
to assure to every southern State, her rights and her equality in the Union, in all time 
to come. Then our career as a free people, would only be momentarily checked by 
this shock of dissolution which is upon us, and we should hereafter' continue to 
expand and improve and advance, until we should reach the full meridian of national 
greatness and happiness. 

And, Mr. President, if the spirit of fraternity and conciliation has fled from this 
Congress and this Senate Hall, is it clean gone from the country forever ? Does it 
no longer move the masses of honest and true men of the North ? Do they not still 
love their country, the whole country, the South as well as the North? Will they 
forget the spirit in which the war of the Revolution was waged? Will they not re- 
collect that George Washington, a southern man, led their fathers of the North as 
well as the men of the South in that war ; that while northern men offered up their 
lives on southern battle-fields, the men of the South as cheerfully shed iheir blood in 
defense of their brethren on northern soil ? And remembering that Heaven itself deals 
with his creature, man, through mediation and in infinite concession ; remembering, 
loo, that in order to form the Constitution of our Government, their fathers made 
concessions upon this very subject of slavery, will they refuse the concessions now 
demanded by the South, not merely on the score of equality and of right, but as ne- 
cessary to the safety of their wives and children? Will they not yield them, and so 
preserve, or, if need be, re-construct, the union of these American States. Mr. Presi- 
dent, I appeal from their Representatives to the sovereign people of the North ; and 
may God grant to interpose for our county in this the hour of her extremity and 
need. 



I 



m 



-y 



H. polkinhorn's 

STEAM JOB PEESS, 

Wd^zhincjion, D. C. 



^ 



